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THE 



MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



John Potter. 



BY THEk- 

Eey. WM. PFBrEED, D.D., 

Author of "Feeding ox Christ,'' etc. 



V> 1879 ^ 




PHILADELPHIA: 

PBESBYTEBIAX BOAED OF BTTBLICATIOX, 
Xo. 13-34 Chestnut Street. 

V \<Lna\ 



•^5 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotype?^ and Electrolypers, Philada. 



of 



no 




THE 



MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 
JOHX POTTER. 



F the great divine-human model of character 



and lite it was said, " He went about doing 
good." He went about — not in quest of wealth, 
for the earth is his, and the fullness thereof ; not 
to secure the objects of worldly ambition, for when 
the people began to shout their huzzas and say, 
u Go to, let us make him king/ 3 he withdrew and 
hid himself from them; — he went about to work 
the weal of the poor- and needy, the weary and 
heavy-laden. 

He "went about he did not stay at home 
and expend his energies in sighing over the in- 
finite needs of men. Sympathy is a virtue. The 
prompt, warm response of one heart to the strokes 
that have fallen on others is the prerogative of 
the truly great and good. It argues largeness 
and diffusiveness of nature. But sympathy which 
does not embody itself in action is a force that 




4 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



moves nothing, a hand that grasps nothing, a pair 
of feet resting on a pillow. Sympathy that stays 
at home in one street in behalf of starvation in 
another street does nothing to arrest the progress 
of the starvation or to mitigate a single pang. 
But the sympathy of Jesus was an impelling force 
that bore him about doing good. His knowledge 
of the needs of men was a stimulus, not a paral- 
ysis. He knew more than any one else of the her- 
culean work that behooved to be done. He knew 
that there were whole acres, square miles, king- 
doms, continents of misery to be mitigated, of 
depravities to be counteracted, of errors to be up- 
rooted, and he knew that every single act of 
Christian charity was fraught with the fruitage 
of God for needy man. So " he went about 
doing good." 

Prayer is a power. On the lips of an Elijah 
it locked up the heavens and threw away the 
key. And, again, it unlocked the brazen gates 
of the sky, and let down on the perished earth 
the life-giving treasures of the rain. What could 
it not have done on the lip of Jesus of Nazareth? 
But he did not shut himself up to prayer; "he 
went about doing good." 

And will any one say, hint or think that we 
do anything unseemly or unbecoming when we 
write these words as an inscription over the photo- 
graph of a plain, humble wayfarer along the high- 
ways of time — one who knew little of gilded halls 



JOHN POTTER. 



5 



of wealth, of sumptuous fare, of attire of crimson 
and purple and fine twined linen — little of the 
achievements of science and the loftier walks of 
education and culture ? Will the Son of God re- 
sent it as an injury if we take these words which 
the Holy Spirit applied to him and apply them 
to a plain ploughman in his field ? Is not every 
believer alive with the life that is in Christ Jesus? 
May not every believer say, and say truly, "Christ 
liveth in me"? Why, then, should not this life 
in the believer issue in acts harmonious with those 
of the Source of the life? We know of no other 
text that so accurately tells the life-tale of the 
man of whom we write as this : " He went about 
doing good." In the year 1820, when he was 
seventeen years old, he went up, in Bunyan's 
phrase, to the man at the door with the inkhorn 
before him and said, " Set down my name," and 
then went in and took his seat at his first com- 
munion-table. In the year 1878 the angels came 
and bore his spirit up to Abraham's bosom ; and 
during that long period of fifty-eight years the 
sound of his footfall was heard almost as inces- 
santly as the click of the pendulum as he went 
about doing good. For twenty-five years he acted 
as colporteur or agent of the American Tract So- 
ciety, and for eight years he served as city mis- 
sionary in the employ of the West Spruce Street 
Church of Philadelphia, carrying also a commis- 
sion as colporteur from the Presbyterian Board 
l * 



6 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



of Publication, His service as colporteur and 
city missionary consisted in going from house 
to house exhorting, comforting, relieving in mul- 
titudes of cases the physical wants of the poor, 
giving a tract or a volume or a copy of the word 
of God 7 kneeling in the family and praying with 
and for them, and entreating the unconverted to 
be reconciled to God. Was not this literally to 
go about doing good? 

Johk Potter was born in the year 1803 in Al- 
legheny county, twelve miles south of Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania; his father, also John Potter, was 
descended from a Huguenot ancestry driven from 
France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
His mother, Jane Campbell Potter, was of Scotch 
parentage, of the clan now represented by the duke 
of Argyle. There mingled in his blood, therefore, 
combined memories of those grand old Presbyterians 
who under Coligny fought the battle with the Cathe- 
rines de Medicis and the horrid Guises in France, 
and of those who, with the Knoxes and the Mel- 
villes, won the victory over the Mortons and the 
Marys in rugged, glorious old Scotland. He was 
therefore in blood and bones, as well as in creed, 
character and spirit, a thoroughgoing Presbyterian. 

It was in the year 1792 that his parents left the 
north of Ireland, crossed the Atlantic, plunged 
into the wilds of Pennsylvania, and at length 
pitched their tent on the spot where the subject 
of this memoir was born. Here they lived and here 



JOHN POTTER. 



7 



they died, — the mother at the age of eighty-four, 
and the tat her at the age of eighty-eight. 

The father was a man of God, and his clear recog- 
nition of the presence and providence of God, and 
his habit of seeking divine guidance in all the 
every-day duties of life, made such an impression 
on the mind and heart of his son as to reproduce 
themselves in all their fullness in his long and 
active life. His mother was a woman of more than 
ordinary intellectual and spiritual endowments, and 
of true fidelity as a Christian parent. She was in 
the habit of conversing with her children on the sub- 
ject of personal religion. Thus from his earliest 
years John Potter breathed the atmosphere of god- 
liness. While yet quite a child he was in the habit 
of taking his wants to God in prayer. Being sent 
of an errand, and fearing he might meet a deranged 
man of the neighborhood on his way, he kneeled 
beneath a tree to ask the divine protection. Very 
early in his life the Spirit of God began to move 
upon his heart and to fill his mind with thoughts 
of sacred things. 

One day his uncle, Philip Potter, visited them, 
bringing with him a volume which had accompa- 
nied him across the ocean. It was Doddridge's 
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. This 
volume he left at Mrs. Potter's, and John one 
evening, when he was about seventeen years of 
age, went to the bookshelves to find something to 
read. His eye was caught by the title of this book, 



8 



THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



and he was soon deep in its perusal. As he read 
the Spirit of God touched his heart, and ere long 
that heart was surging under the power of the 
thoughts that palpitate beneath the words on those 
mighty pages as the Sea of Galilee surges under the 
winds of God. And now lie felt the necessity to 
pray. But there was no place in that humble 
home where he might be all alone with his soul 
and his God. It was winter, the snow covered the 
landscape. But he left the house and withdrew to 
the orchard, and there on the ground, beneath an 
apple tree, he kneeled and poured out his soul in 
supplication for pardon and acceptance with God. 
How vividly we can picture to ourselves that scene 
•"—the ground white with snow, the frozen branches 
of the leafless trees crackling in the wind, the 
moonbeams struggling through the clouds and 
mingling with the sighing of the wind and the 
crackling of the branches, the cries of that boy to 
Heaven for the priceless gift, salvation ! In the 
daytime he would go to the barn, climb the ladder, 
and there in one corner kneel upon the hay and 
repeat his wrestlings with God in prayer. At 
times he would lie prostrate on his face and bewail 
his sin and guilt in the eye of an all-holy God. 

Now, however trivial in the eyes of self-com- 
placent, secular pride may be the spectacle of a 
youth of seventeen bowed in the hayloft, or on his 
knees in the snow under the trees in the orchard 
with the night winds whistling around him, or 



JOHN POTTER. 



9 



prostrate on his face, wrestling in a great agony 
with a sense of sin and guilt, for a sense of pardon 
and reconciliation with God, in the eye of the 
angels and of sound reason not the spectacle of 
Columbus wrestling with the problem of a new 
world beyond the sea, of Sir Isaac Newton 
grappling with the great principle of gravitation, 
of Leverrier groping in the great cloud of mathe- 
matical calculations after that elusive planet, is so 
fraught with true moral grandeur. 

All this while he kept the knowledge of this 
conflict to himself. To his father, whose heart the 
tidings would have filled with solemn pleasure, to 
his mother, whose eyes would have run down with 
tears of joy at the discovery, he said not a word. 
His course in this respect was that of millions of 
others. What is the secret of this mystery ? Why 
is it that especially members of the same family, 
who converse with untrammelled freedom upon 
any other interests that concern them, are tongue- 
tied on the subject of their own personal religious 
experience? Even the Christian members of the 
household, who can with all readiness exhort sin- 
ners in the outside world to be reconciled to God, 
often find it next to impossible to say a word to 
brother, sister, wife or husband. It is related of 
even the eloquent Chalmers that on a certain occa- 
sion, Avhen a minister peculiarly gifted in addressing 
children was spending a day at his house, he said 
to his guest, " Now, my good brother, I will leave 



10 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



you in the parlor to speak to my child about her 
soul, and I will go to my room and pray for you 
and her; for I find it almost impossible to say a 
word to her directly on the subject." And how 
hard it is, too, for a child to go to a Christian parent 
and say, " Father, mother, I am a lost sinner; 
please pray with me that I may be saved" ! And 
in that counting-house the clerk will almost as soon 
bite off his tongue as he will say to a fellow-clerk, 
"I am in distress for my soul." That young 
woman in the seminary whose mind knows no rest 
because of conviction for sin — conviction that has 
seized upon her in answer to an absent, perchance 
to a now sainted, mother's prayers— hides her solemn 
secret in her heart, and often grieves away the 
striving Spirit of God. Pride is often the cause of 
this sinful reticence; guilty shame, fear of attracting 
attention, remark, ridicule, often lies at the root of 
this unwise and sinful reluctance. At such are 
aimed by the Holy Spirit the words that played so 
solemn a part in the spiritual life of young Potter: 
" Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my 
words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed 
when he shall come in his own glory and in his 
Father's, and the holy angels." 

One of the wisest, one of the safest things a 
soul under conviction of sin, can do is to go to 
some trusted friend or relative and tell the story 
of his convictions and beg an interest in his 
prayers. 



JOHN POTTER. 



11 



As the writer was preaching one evening he 
was interrupted in his discourse by the almost 
passionate weeping of four boys in the congre- 
gation before him. After service he took them 
to his study, talked and prayed with them, and 
then charged them, " Go home and tell your 
parents just how you feel, and ask them to pray 
for you." They did so. All four became mem- 
bers of the church. One of them became a for- 
eign missionary, another a pastor over a church 
where for very many years he has labored with 
large success. 

"Why young Potter did not open his mind to 
his godly parents we do not know. He did, 
however, make an effort to speak with his pas- 
tor, who, unhappily, was not easily accessible, 
and who was little accustomed to hold conver- 
sation with his people on the subject of personal 
religion. One Sabbath evening, after sermon, 
John took pains to throw himself in the way 
of his pastor in the hope that the latter would 
say a word to him which might open the way 
to an unburdening of his soul to his spiritual 
shepherd. He watched for an opportunity, and 
when his pastor was alone he rode up to him. 
The latter turned his head, and seeing the boy 
made some remark which had such an effect on 
the modest youth that he immediately dropped 
to the rear and gave up the attempt at an in- 
terview. Among the gifts and graces that we 



12 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



pastors ought to cultivate is that of easy ap- 
proachability by the young and modest and 
shrinking in our congregations. To whom ought 
the lambs to run — especially in the momentous 
hours when the Spirit of God is striving with 
them, and while they are in danger of grieving 
him away for ever— if not to their shepherd ? No 
shepherd has the right to wear the lion's mane 
of unapproachable dignity and frighten the lambs 
away. Who believes that the babes of old shrank 
back and cried when Jesus took them in his arms? 
Who can imagine that those little ones did not 
put their arms about his neck as knowing in- 
stinctively that he was their best friend ? If any 
yeung pastor reads these lines, let him make a 
vow that whatever else he does he will make 
himself so accessible to the young of his flock 
that they will come to him with their spiritual 
wants and troubles as a child goes to its parents. 

But, happily for many a soul and for many a 
family and many a church, our young friend, 
though he sought not the spiritual counsel of his 
parents and failed to secure that of his pastor, did 
not give up the search for eternal life. His con- 
victions were too deep, the truths of God's word 
were too vivid in his apprehension, and his sense 
of danger was too keen, to allow of this. Months, 
however, rolled away, during which he experi- 
enced a never-yielding distress of mind over his 
condition as one unpardoned and unsaved. Yet 



JOHN POTTER. 



13 



without all doubt whatever of discomfort was in- 
volved in this experience — and, indeed, whatever 
bid may have been mixed with this want of faith 
in the Saviour — still this depth and pungency of 
conviction wrought in him an especial qualifica- 
tion for the work that awaited him in dealing 
for so many years with so many hundreds of sin- 
ners under conviction of sin. At last, however, 
Mercy came to his relief. As he was one day 
following the plough through the field, turning 
up the mellow soil to receive the seed for the 
future crop, a light above that of the sun that 
lay upon the landscape fell upon his soul and 
gave the peace that passeth understanding. For 
a while he mounted up on wings as eagles. His 
mouth was filled with laughter and his tongue 
with singing; his root was spread out by the wa- 
ters, and the dew lay all night upon his branch ; 
his glory was fresh in him, and his bow was re- 
newed in his hand. But ere long the wings of 
his joyous flight were clipped by a fresh expe- 
rience of the sinfulness of his heart. His light 
was obscured by clouds of doubt; he was harassed 
with fears lest his peace had been a delusion, and 
instead of flying he found it hard to rim and not 
be weary — yea, even to walk and not to faint — 
nay, even to stand in the evil day. 

Communion-day came, and the going forward 
of others to the table of the Lord made ap- 
peals to his conscience hard to resist ; but be- 

2 



14 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



tween him and the Palace Beautiful fear like a 
lion stood and shook its mane and glared upon him 
— fear that in sitting down at that table he should 
eat and drink unworthily and bring evil upon 
his soul. Communion-day, therefore, found him 
again among the spectators— not a careless rejecter 
of, or rebel against, the Saviour's dying command, 
but a sad and misled spectator of the solemn scene. 
How many are like him in all our congregations ! 
The Spirit and the Bride say, " Come ;" the bless- 
ed Saviour says, "Come;" every spiritual interest 
of the soul cries, u Come ;" and yet for months 
and years they hesitate and deprive themselves 
of the food that Jesus offers them. The reasons 
why many stay from the table of the Lord are 
very different from those which influenced young 
Potter. Some are absent from that table because 
they do not believe that this service is necessary 
to salvation, forgetting that a positive command 
of the Saviour is not to be set aside by any rea- 
sonings of ours. Others say that there are people 
out of the Church as good as many who are in it. 
This no doubt is true, for there are some in the 
Church who at the judgment-day will find them- 
selves at the left hand of God. Others, again, 
shrink from the discharge of this duty, lest they 
find themselves unable to keep the vows which 
such an approach involves. The writer, when a 
young man, pondering this duty, went to his 
pastor, the Rev. John M. Krebs, D. D., and said 



JOHN POTTER. 



15 



to him, " I would like to be a member of the 
Church, but I fear that I should soon break my 
vows and bring condemnation on myself." The 
reply came in the form of the question : " Has not 
the Saviour promised to give strength to those 
who go forward in duty trusting in him ¥' 
"Yes." "Well, then, suppose you put him to 
his word." That reply settled the question. 
Some say, " I am not worthy/" but who ever was 
worthy ? In Christ, however, we are infinitely 
worthy, and from one cause or another there is 
reason to believe that at all times there is a very 
large number of true, humble Christians standing 
in the outer courts of the temple looking wistfully 
in, but as yet not daring to enter and sit down at 
the table of the Lord. That which kept our 
young friend away so long was a profound sense 
of sin and a doubt whether or not his sins were 
forgiven. 

Ever and anon through all this time the word 
would come ringing in his ear, " Whosoever shall 
be ashamed of me, and of my words, of him shall 
the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall 
come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and 
of the holy angels,'' quickening his convictions 
and distressing his heart. In this style of experi- 
ence something like a year passed away. Again 
the communion season approached. A meeting of 
the session was announced. Once more the ques- 
tion was to be answered one way or the other : 



16 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



<( Wilt thou now after so long a time do this in re- 
membrance of mef This question he answered 
by presenting himself to the session and asking 
admission to the table of the Lord. This threw 
the responsibility of his presence at the table of the 
Lord, or of his absence from it, upon the office-bearers 
of the church. This course was wise, and many in 
similar frame of mind would do well to follow this 
example, for often there is a feeble faith, and a 
trembling hope which is yet so mixed with doubts 
and fears that the subject of them is in a large 
degree disqualified from judging what course is 
most in accordance with the dictates of wisdom 
and duty, w T hile pastor and elders, with their riper 
Christian experience and long and large acquaintance 
with spiritual moods, are w^ell fitted to decide whether 
or not the applicant is prepared for enrollment 
among the public professors of the faith of Christ. 

One of the members of the session was so struck 
with the replies of the applicant that he repeated 
many of them in the hearing of his young son, the 
result of which was so deep an impression on the 
mind of the listener as, with other things, to lead 
him also to the Saviour; that son became the late 
Rev. A. Williams, D. D., pastor of the church at 
Leetsdale, Pennsylvania. Thus do the sparks 
from the anvil of God kindle the fires of salva- 
tion in the prairies of time. 

With characteristic decision he went from the 
communion-table where the public pledge had been 



JOHN POTTER. 



17 



recorded, and in the closet, having copied from 
Doddridge's Rise and Progress a form of personal 
dedication, on his knees he set his name to the 
bond dedicating himself, body, soul and spirit, to 
God for evermore. 

The honesty of this dedication was soon to be 
tested. A boy ten years old living in the family 
of a notoriously ungodly man was taken sick with 
a form of illness that threatened soon to bear its 
victim to the grave. The condition of that boy, 
sick and dying in such a family with no one to 
minister to his spiritual wants, necessarily awakened 
widespread interest. The sister of the boy sought 
in all directions through the neighborhood for help 
in this time of trouble, but for a long time her 
quest was in vain. One and another refused to 
venture into the house of the son of Belial. At 
length the sister came to Mrs. Potter and told her 
sad story. Mrs. Potter sent into the harvest-field 
at once for her son. On his arrival she told him 
the story of the dying boy, and then she said, 
"Now, Johnny, you must go and talk and pray 
with him." But his young spirit shrank, as many 
an older one might shrink, not only from venturing 
into the house of a man whose harsh, ungodly 
spirit was likely to break forth in insult and abuse, 
and possible expulsion from the doors, but more 
than all from the solemn responsibility of taking 
in hand the direction of an immortal soul just 
ready to spread its wings for the flight to the 

2* B 



18 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



eternal world. For a while it seemed to him that 
the task was one that he could not assume, but his 
mother would take no denial. She felt that if this 
boy, whose case had been brought, in the providence 
of God, to her door, should die without Chris- 
tian counsel and prayer, his blood might lie upon 
her and hers. She therefore insisted : " Johnny, you 
must go; you can tell him how you found the 
Saviour." And while he yet hesitated the Spirit of 
God in execution of his office, whereby he brings to 
remembrance the words of Jesus, startled him by 
whispering in his ear, " Whosoever shall be ashamed 
of me and my words," etc. etc. He yielded, and at 
once with a trembling heart set out upon his solemn 
errand. As he passed through the woods he sought 
a convenient place, and, kneeling beneath a tree, 
poured out a fervent petition to God to prepare the 
way before him and to gird him for the work. To 
his great relief, on his arrival he learned that the 
wicked man w 7 as at w r ork in the field. Finding 
the boy very sick, he told him briefly and simply 
the old, old story, and then kneeling down prayed 
for him, and came away. The ice was now broken. 
Again and again he visited that boy, and at length 
the light began to dawn upon that hitherto be- 
nighted mind. Heart failed and flesh fast failed, 
but God became the strength of the dying boy^s 
heart and his portion for ever. The lone boy 
walked through the valley of the shadow of death, 
fearing no evil, for the Lord was with him ; his rod 



JOHN POTTER, 



19 



and his staff they comforted him. So early did 
God set the seal of success upon the labors of this 
young Christian worker. 

Events seemed to show that he had indulged un- 
necessary fear of the wicked householder, for in 
about a twelvemonth after the death of the stranger 
boy in his home God came and took a child from 
his family circle, and when the question arose about 
some one to conduct the funeral service, the man 
would allow no one to be sent for but the youthful 
Potter. So often is the lion before which we tremble 
chained in harmlessness ! A striking illustration 
of this came to the knowledge of the writer years 
ago. Those who knew the Hon. Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen well remember that for simple, humble 
piety he was a portion of the salt of the earth. As 
a practitioner at the Xewark (Xew Jersey) bar he 
laid upon himself the duty to speak personally on 
the subject of religion to every other member not 
known to be a professor of the faith of Christ. A 
distinguished member of the bar at that time was 
the Hon. Samuel L. Southard. Between these two 
eminent men the closest intimacy existed ; and, 
strange to say, the very intimacies of friendship, 
which would seem specially to facilitate Christian 
advances and religious conversation, often lift them- 
selves into arduous barriers to such advances. And 
it happened in this case, as in so many others, that 
the duty of personal appeal to his friend with 
reference to the necessity of repentance and faith 



20 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



was postponed again and again, until at last Mr. 
Frelinghuysen said to himself, "This duty must be 
discharged." Accordingly, he set out from his 
home for the home of his friend on the momentous 
errand, and the nearer he approached the goal the 
more formidable the lion in the way seemed to be. 
At last, with a trembling hand, he rang the bell, 
and was of course most cordially welcomed. As 
soon as he might he introduced his errand, the 
great theme, and what was his surprise to find Mr. 
Southard listening to him not only with polite, but 
with interested and thankful, attention ! The lion 
was no lion, but a gentle lamb. 

Not long after the death of the neighbor's child 
another communion season came, and during the 
various exercises by which the celebration of this 
solemn sacrament was accompanied and followed in 
those days three or four theological students came 
to spend a few days within the bounds of the con- 
gregation. Taking advantage of their presence, 
the Rev. Dr. Ralston appointed a young men's 
prayer-meeting, to be conducted by them ; and 
coming to John Potter he told him of the meeting 
and said to him, " Now I want you to attend the 
meeting, and to be ready, if called on, to lead 
in prayer." Having as yet never led in prayer in 
a public meeting, he shrank with unaffected hu- 
mility from the proposed service, and begged to be 
excused. But again the old warning came: " Who- 
soever shall be ashamed of me," etc. etc., and the 



JOHN POTTER. 



21 



call of duty found him in his place. He had put 
his hand to the plough, and he dared not look back. 
Those who can recall the emotions with which 
they struggled through with the first prayer they 
were called to offer in the prayer-meeting can 
imagine the fluttering of heart and stammering of 
tongue with which he executed this solemn duty. 

When he was about twenty years of age he met 
the Eev. Mr. Hoge of Washington, Pennsylvania. 
Mr. Hoge was deeply impressed with the spirit of 
the young man, and some time after sent him an 
invitation to visit him, saying that he had a propo- 
sition to make to him. He accepted the invitation 
and the proposition was one that for a time caused 
him no little perplexity of mind. It was no other 
than an offer to assist him in obtaining an educa- 
tion for the gospel ministry. This was not a prop- 
osition to be disposed of one way or the other with- 
out serious consideration. He pondered it honestly 
and long. He took it repeatedly to God in prayer. 
His purpose was in this as in every other proceed- 
ing of his life to do what should seem to him to be 
the will of God. His health at the time was not 
good — he was troubled with an ailment which a 
sedentary life would almost surely increase : his 
means were limited : these with other considera- 
tions led him at last to decide that the Master had 
not called him to the sacred office. But even after 
his decision had been honestly made according to 
the light bestowed upon him, the suggestion that 



22 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



his decision might have been made on insufficient 
grounds would come across his mind with disturb- 
ing force and awaken fear that he had set his will 
against the will of God. He vowed, however, 
that if God ever gave him a son, that son should 
be devoted to this blessed work • and when his first- 
born was given him he remembered his vow and 
kept it. That son has now been preaching the 
gospel for twenty-three years ; and not only that 
son, but three other sons besides, one of whom, 
John W., is now with his father and mother at the 
right hand of God in heaven. Of the other sons, 
John H. is preaching the gospel at Winterset, 
Iowa ; Gilbert M. at Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania ; 
and Henry N. at Darlington, Pennsylvania. 

When he was twenty-two years of age notice 
w T as given in the church that on a day specified 
an election for ruling elders would be held. 
When the day arrived the people were informed 
that the right of suffrage in that church vested 
in the heads of families, and that all others would 
withdraw. Mr. Potter of course withdrew with 
the rest, and sat under the shade of a tree during 
the progress of election, and on their return and 
the names of the elders elect were announced, 
what was his amazement and disquietude to hear 
his own name as one of them ! To his appre- 
hension the responsibilities of this sacred office 
were for others than such as he. After the audi- 
ence was dismissed he went up to his pastor and 



JOHN POTTER. 



23 



said, w Doctor, surely you do not expect me to 
accept the office of ruling elder in the church V* 

" Young man/ 3 answered Dr. Ralston, " take 
care what you do. In the providence of God you 
have been chosen to this office. You had better 
be careful how you venture to refuse the call," 

He went home under a deep sense of the grave 
responsibility involved in either the acceptance 
or refusal of the office. According to his invari- 
able custom, he spread the matter in prayer before 
his God, and then anxiously awaited the result. 
He dared not formally decline, and yet he de- 
voutly hoped that when the day of ordination 
came objection would be made by members of the 
congregation on the ground, if on no other, that 
he was far too young to be admitted to the elder- 
ship. Indeed, it occasioned no little comment 
in the community that such a mere youth should 
have been chosen for such an office, for in those 
times it was rare to find a young man even at the 
communion-table. Yet the comment was rather 
that of commendation of the good sense of the 
electors in preferring fitness to mere years than 
of disparagement of either them or the object 
of their choice. When the day of ordination ar- 
rived he was at his post, listening anxiously in the 
hope that when the usual question was put, u Do 
you, the members of this church, acknowledge 
and receive this brother as a ruling elder? and do 
you promise to yield him all that honor, encour- 



24 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 

agement and obedience in the Lord to which his 
office, according to the word of God and the con- 
stitution of this church, entitle him ?" there might 
be such dissent as would release him from the 
heavy responsibility which in his view attached 
to the office. But the people were too w 7 ell ac- 
quainted with the richness of his qualification for 
the office, and too glad to accept the treasure the 
Lord had sent them, to do otherwise than assent 
most heartily to the question. Seeing at last that 
there was no escape, he submitted with solemn 
reluctance to w r hat now seemed to him to be the 
will of God. 

On the first day of January, 1828, Mr. Potter 
was married to Miss Eliza Hair, daughter of 
James Hair, Esq., of Monongahela City, elder of 
the Presbyterian church of that place. She had 
been instructed from her youth in the doctrines 
of the gospel. At the age of sixteen she had 
made a profession of religion, a step to which she 
often referred with grateful delight. From this 
time to the hour of her death, March 17, 1869, 
she was in every sense a helpmeet of this model 
Christian worker. She delighted in the Sabbath- 
school ; her class was always full ; many of her 
scholars are now active laborers in the vineyard 
of Christ. She was remarkably hospitable; her 
house was well called "the ministers' hotel." She 
was always ready to do an act of kindness. She 
made no show of her generosity, yet hers was one 



JOHN POTTER. 



25 



of the warmest hearts that ever beat in human 
bosom. Her religion was one of the quiet kind; 
" The Lord knows, and that is enough," was often 
her answer. She was one of the staunchest Pres- 
byterians, perfectly devoted to the cause of Christ, 
and a great lover of the prayer-meeting as well 
as of family and secret prayer. She helped to 
sustain a female prayer-meeting, maintained fam- 
ily worship in the absence of her husband, and her 
children yet feel the impress of her private prayer 
when she took some of them with her or they 
drew near and listened to her pleadings with her 
God. Most closely did she watch the habits of 
her children, and with tears entreat them to give 
their hearts to the Saviour. These appeals could 
not but be felt. She was quick in detecting cha- 
racter. Two of her brothers are in the ministry — 
Eev. Samuel Hair of Chicago and Rev. G. M. 
Hair of Baltimore. Death, as he drew near, had 
no terrors for her. She loved to talk of her 
Saviour. She w r as fond of music. " Nearer, my 
God, to Thee," and " My Soul, come, Meditate the 
Day," etc., were favorite hymns which she often 
asked to have sung after she could no longer sing. 
Her departure can scarcely be called death. She 
had slept sweetly for five or six hours, and was 
still sleeping so till she ceased to breathe. 

Shortly after Mr. Potter's marriage a Sabbath- 
school was opened in connection with the church 
at Mingo, and placed under the charge of ruling 

3 



28 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



elders Mr. Benjamin Williams — fondly called Uncle 
Benjamin — and Mr. Potter. In this school Mr. 
Potter taught a class of young ladies, two of whom 
ere long, as they acknowledged, through his fidel- 
ity as their teacher, became professed followers of 
Christ and devoted in their Christian life. 

With Mr. Potter, Sabbath - school teaching 
was anything but an easy formality. Whoever 
can go before a Sabbath - school class with no 
equipment for the 'hour but a general and too 
often very meagre knowledge of the great Book, 
he could not. He dared not, by treating the 
young immortals in his class with such crude 
provision, take away all stimulus to prompt, 
punctual attendance, and thus keep them in a 
frame of mind which made it as easy for them to 
stay at home or loiter on the way as to be pres- 
ent in the class and always on the lookout for 
a pretext upon w T hich to absent themselves alto- 
gether. Fully and solemnly aware of the interests 
that might be involved in a single hour before his 
class, he was in the habit of diligent, even labor- 
ious, preparation for his work. He secured com- 
mentaries and a Bible dictionary, and with these 
and his Bible he would be seen, during the spare 
moments in the intervals of his daily toil, search- 
ing for the truth as for hid treasure. He did this 
not as a piece of drudgery, but as a luxury, for 
he knew that in preparing spiritual food for his 
class he was feeding his own soul. And while 



JOHN POTTER. 



27 



engaged in work he and his brother were in the 
habit of talking over the lesson of the coming 
Sabbath. 

Nor was this his only means of preparation. 
God in his providence laid another duty upon him 
which was of great service in fitting him not only 
for labor in his Sabbath-school class, but for the 
grand work he was to accomplish in his future 
and more public life. His mother became dis- 
abled by sickness from going to the house of God 
on the Sabbath day, and she was in the habit of 
saying to her son on his return from church, 
" Now, Johnny, tell me all about the sermon you 
heard to day." To be ready for this he had to 
become a very attentive listener while the preacher 
delivered his message; and as his pastor, Dr. Rals- 
ton, was an excellent sermonizer and a fine theo- 
logian, this practice of listening and reporting the 
discourses became to him a most valuable mental 
discipline and means of instruction ; and so it 
will be with all careful listeners to well-prepared 
sermons. If the minister be a man of educa- 
tion, and of diligence in the preparation of his 
sermons, there is no one, however gifted, no one, 
however learned, who by careful listening will not 
grow in intellect as well as in moral excellence. 
Our ordinary pulpit service consists of a series of 
carefully-prepared lectures on themes of infinite 
magnitude and of infinite importance. In these 
discourses there is a constant presentation of such 



28 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



ideas as these: God — infinite, eternal and un- 
changeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, 
justice, goodness and truth; eternity — shoreless, 
bottomless, measureless ; Christ — bone of our bone 
and flesh of our flesh, yet very God of very God ; 
his life; his death, bearing our sin in his own body 
on the tree; man — God's image, mortal, immortal ; 
sin— the leprosy that has gone into the world's 
very bones; everlasting punishment; life eternal. 
Now to grapple with and be led to measure and 
ponder themes like these Sabbath after Sabbath, 
year after year, will work both a moral and intel- 
lectual training in any man — a training that will 
tell heavily and happily on the mental and moral 
powers of any man ; and it was by these means 
that Mr. Potter prepared himself to meet his class 
of immortal souls on the Sabbath day. Would 
that the good Lord would send us a new and large 
supply of such Sabbath-school teachers. And let 
every Sabbath-school teacher bear it in mind that 
this constant study and preparation to meet a Sab- 
bath-school class is just the training needed to 
make one useful in the Church and among friends, 
acquaintance and men everywhere. Unconsciously, 
Mr. Potter was now preparing himself for that 
career of usefulness which will keep his name in 
remembrance among God's children when millions 
who were on the stage of life with him, and who 
filled a much larger space in the world's eye, will be 
forgotten for ever. 



JOHN POTTER. 



29 



Mr. Potter lived five miles from church, and in 
the afternoon after church and Sabbath-school were 
over, he and his brother were wont to set out for 
another place some distance away where the people 
were destitute of the means of grace, and there 
they established and conducted a mission-school. 
At this place the seed was sown that added new 
sheaves to the granary of Heaven. The fondness 
of the money-getter for money, and of the pleas- 
ure-seeker for gratification, and of the scholar for 
knowledge, are insatiable; no less insatiable was 
the fondness of Mr. Potter for labor in his Master's 
cause. 

At length the time arrived for his entrance upon 
a new and wider field of life and labor. His 
elder brother had expressed a strong desire for a 
farm-home on the bank of a river. To gratify 
this desire search had been made, and an eligible 
property secured thirty-five miles below Pittsburg, 
on the bank of the Ohio River. The site was one 
of rich and even romantic beauty — an undulating 
landscape diversified with towering bluffs, all over- 
spread with virgin forest of various woods, inter- 
spersed with evergreens, ignorant as yet of the axe 
of civilization, and frequented by troops of un- 
tamed deer, and in the autumn, when u the year 
puts on its visionary tints and falling leaves falter 
through motionless air," looking as if a thousand 
rainbows had become inextricably entangled among 
the branches of the trees, and withal, through 

3* 



30 



THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



spring and fall, summer and winter, the old river 
rolling solemnly by like the stream of time sweep- 
ing onward to eternity. 

But while man proposes God disposes. Hardly 
had that older brother laid low a few of the old 
forest trees and let in the unhindered sunlight upon 
the long-shadowed soil, when death came and laid 
his body low in the ground, and sent his spirit away 
to enjoy landscapes grander and more beautiful 
than earth has ever known since sin spoiled the 
original Paradise. Attempts to sell the farm 
having failed, it was given to John, and greatly 
against his inclination he set out with his wife and 
_ one child, eighteen months old, for his new home. 
He arrived April 7, 1830. If he had been reluc- 
tant to remove to this new abode, he soon became 
still more reluctant to remain there. Of what 
avail to a godly spirit all the beauties of Nature, 
brightness of skies and full-hearted generosity of 
soil, if all is defiled by the leprous depravities of 
man ? Not only was the farm seven miles from 
the nearest church, not only was the region around 
one of uncultivated spiritual destitution, but the 
whole neighborhood was rife with wickedness in 
its most daring forms. A flourishing distillery — 
and accordingly drunkenness and all the brood of 
vices of which it is the prolific parent— profanity, 
Sabbath-breaking, gambling, and all the rest of 
the hideous rabble of vices, gave the whole region 
a sort of Sodom itic character. No wonder, there- 



JOHN POTTER. 



31 



fore, if the heart of the young elder sank within 
him at the thought of living and bringing up his 
children amid surroundings such as these. His 
righteous soul was vexed every day with the filthy 
conversation of the wicked. For four months he 
and his young wife rode on horseback seven miles 
each Sabbath to worship with the people of God. 
At length the load on his mind and heart became 
too heavy to be longer borne, and mounting his 
horse he rode away across the country to consult 
with u Uncle Benjamin," the venerable ruling elder 
of the church at Mingo. When he had told the 
story of his disgust and discouragement the old 
man asked, 

" Why did you buy a farm in such a neighbor- 
hood?" 

" I did not buy it ; father gave it to me." 
"Then you had nothing whatever to do with 
locating yourself there?" 
" Nothing whatever." 

" Consider, then, what may be the providential 
meaning of this. If you had nothing to do with 
this arrangement yourself, you may rest assured the 
Lord had ; and now the proper question for you is, 
( Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ¥ " 

" What do you think I ought to do ?" 

"As you return, stop in Pittsburg and get a 
volume of good sermons ; get also some books and 
tracts ; start a Sabbath-school ; hold a meeting on 
the Sabbath ; read the Bible to the people ; read 



32 



THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



a sermon also, and talk or pray with them; go to 
every house in the neighborhood ; invite the people 
to your meeting and Sabbath-school; talk with 
them, pray with them, give each of them a tract, 
and see that every family has a Bible." 

"You would not have me stay away from 
church, would you?" 

" Certainly I would. Have a church and Sab- 
bath-school of your own. Get Presbytery to send 
you a preacher occasionally, and try and do the 
people good. The Lord has sent you into that 
neighborhood for a purpose; see that you do the 
work that he has laid to your hand." 

Such reasoning he was not prepared to resist. 
He returned to his new home and to the work to 
which he now felt that God had called him. 

At length, after no little consultation and prayer, 
and amid the sneers and jeers of the sons of Belial 
by whom he was surrounded, and the emphatically 
expressed misgivings of his friends, who confi- 
dently predicted failure, assuring him that the 
people were too wicked for such an enterprise to 
prosper, he opened a Sabbath-school. A room in 
a private house was offered, and on the first day 
eleven pupils entered the school. Opposition soon 
gave way, as it always will to honest Christian 
energy and perseverance. Impressed with the 
resolute spirit of the young elder, the neighbors 
began ere long to lend a helping hand. The truth 
is, that the spirit* of Christian consecration invests 



JOHN POTTER. 



33 



one with a solemn authority before which unbelief 
stands abashed, and even reluctant children of God 
are awed into acquiescence if not into active co-ope- 
ration. 

The writer knew a young man — who had been a 
leader in the ranks of evil in his native village — 
after his conversion to yield to the conviction that 
he ought to go into every house in that town and 
pray with every household. Nor was he dis- 
obedient to the heavenly suggestion. He went, 
and every door w T as opened before him as before a 
prophet of God, for he was indeed a prophet. 
Would God all the Lord's people were such 
prophets ! 

It was not long before the house where the Sab- 
bath-school met was found too small to contain the 
numbers who sought admission. Another room 
was offered, the largest in the neighborhood. For 
a long time Mr. Potter was the only teacher. No 
other person competent to engage in this work 
resided in the neighborhood excepting Mrs. Potter, 
whose duties as a mother forbade her rendering the 
assistance which otherwise she would gladly have 
offered. But Mr. Potter's heart was too warmly 
engaged in the work to allow room for discourage- 
ment. He offered prayer ; he led the singing ; he 
read and expounded the word of God. Nor did 
his prayerful zeal go long unrewarded. Not many 
Sabbaths went by before the fixed gaze and the 
tear in the eye of one pupil and another certified 

Q 



34 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



him that if he was the only human teacher in that 
school, there was a divine Teacher worth ten thou- 
sand men and women, however wise they might be, 
even the Spirit of God. 

And now not only the children came, but their 
parents began to attend, and their interest was 
awakened. A small but carefully-selected Sabbath- 
school library was obtained, and the truth carried 
home on the printed page reinforced the utterances 
of the living voice, and greatly enlarged the influ- 
ence of the Sabbath-school. 

But even yet the head and heart of the young 
elder were unsatisfied. He must add preaching to 
the work of teaching. Accordingly, he purchased 
a volume of Burder's Village Sermons, and gave 
notice that each Sabbath, after the Sabbath -school 
exercises were closed, he would conduct public wor- 
ship. The people came in large numbers. The 
house was thronged with an eager, hungry audi- 
ence. After a little season of singing and prayer 
Mr. Potter read to the people a sermon from the 
volume, feeling in his soul that God was at work 
through him in the hearts of the people. 

And still he was not satisfied. They must hold 
a prayer-meeting. Accordingly, a weekly prayer- 
meeting was established, to be held from house to 
house as the people desired. Year after year this 
prayer-meeting was held, not only in winter, but 
steadily on through the heat and toil of the harvest- 
season also. Mr. Potter was one who never asked 



JOHN POTTER. 



35 



permission of the thermometer or of the clouds 
or of the state of the roads to do any work for his 
Master. Tired as he might be from his toil in 
following the plough or in wielding the scythe in 
the harvest-field, he was never too tired to walk 
two or three miles to attend his prayer-meeting; 
and to that meeting he went just as promptly 
through pitch darkness as under the light of the 
moon or. stars — just as resolutely through rain and 
snow as through balmy breezes of a summer 
evening. 

In the exercises of the meeting there was no one 
to take part with him. He gave out a hymn and 
led in the singing; then he offered prayer; then 
he read the word of God ; then another hymn ; 
then an exhortation ; then another prayer. 

For leading in the service of song he was well 
qualified by a voice of considerable compass and 
sweetness. In the church at Mingo he used to sit 
in the pulpit with the minister, and be ready when 
the hymn was announced to rise and, as the man- 
ner was in those days, " line out" the hymn for the 
people and lead them in the singing. 

After a time his congregation began to attract 
the attention of the ministers of the remoter vicin- 
ity, and now and then one of them would come 
and spend a Sabbath with Mr. Potter and preach 
to the people. " Good old Father George Scott," 
pastor of the Mill Creek church, was one of them. 

One day Mr. Potter received a visit from a good, 



36 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



quiet man, a Mr. Rambo, a Christian man of re- 
tiring spirit, who said to him : " Mr. Potter, I have 
been praying for years that the Lord would send 
some one into this region to take the lead in the 
Lord's work, so that I could fall in and help it on ; 
and now I believe he has answered my prayer in 
sending you." 

Mr. Ram bo at once entered into the work, and 
became a staunch helper in cultivating the Lord's 
vineyard at that place. 

The work kept growing on his hands, until it 
reached such dimensions as to impress Mr. Potter 
with the conviction that the time had come for the 
regular organization of a church, that the sacra- 
ments might be administered and the work be more 
firmly grounded. 

Accordingly, in 1832 he attended the meeting 
of the Presbytery of Ohio, and made to it a repre- 
sentation of the condition of things in his vicinity. 
The presbytery, after listening to the strange story, 
appointed a committee to proceed to the spot, in- 
quire into the facts of the case, and make report 
of what they saw and of their judgment of what 
might be expedient in the premises. 

This committee consisted of the Rev. Mr. Allen, 
the Rev. James D. Ray and Elder Henry Reed. 
They came, and the ministers preached two sermons 
in Mr. William Rambo's " horse-mill," that stood 
on the bank of the Ohio a short distance above 
" Christler's Landing," now Shippingport. The 



JOHN POTTER. 



37 



committee unanimously reported to presbytery in 
favor of the organization of a church there. The 
report was adopted, and the Rev. J. K. Cunning- 
ham was appointed to visit the place, preach and 
organize the church. 

Due notice of the action of the presbytery was 
given to Mr. Potter and the people, and some 
thirty persons procured their certificates from the 
neighboring congregations — the word " neighbor- 
ins:" meaning something far different from what is 

e> c o 

signified by it in a thickly-settled community — 
and held themselves ready to unite with the new 
organization. 

Mr. Cunningham came, and on Sabbath, June 
17, 1832, he preached to the people assembled in 
a grove on the bank of a stream. On the Monday 
following the congregation met at the house of Mr. 
William Conner. Mr. Cunningham preached. The 
thirty persons were received upon certificate. Mr. 
Potter was unanimously elected ruling elder in the 
new organization, and was then installed by Mr. Cun- 
ningham. Mr. William Eambo and Mr. Jonathan 
Cross were then elected additional ruling elders. 
They were ordained and installed in the September 
following. 

The name given to the church was Bethlehem, for 
they said — and we can easily imagine who said it 
— "The Lord was born in Bethlehem, and by his 
grace souls will be born into his kingdom here/ 1 
And to-day, after forty-six year.-, the name of that 



38 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



Bethlehem church stands on the minutes of the 
General Assembly as under the pastoral charge of 
the Rev. David L. Dickey, and from that com- 
munion-table many hundreds of souls have gone 
to eat and drink at the marriage-supper of the 
Lamb. And just across the river from the "Beth- 
lehem" church there stands to-day another church, 
under the pastoral charge of the Rev. M. A. Par- 
kinson, that church the offspring of the Bethlehem 
church. 

Of the Bethlehem church Mr. Potter was virtu- 
ally the pastor for a period of thirteen years. He 
continued to labor in the Sabbath-school through 
- winter and summer, seed-time and harvest. The 
prayer-meeting was held every week through the 
whole fifty-two weeks of the year. No weather 
was too cold or too hot, or too wet or too dry, for 
his attendance upon his work for Christ in both 
these fields. 

Once a month the presbytery sent supplies for 
the pulpit. The ministers generally came on Sat- 
urday and returned on Monday, unable to tarry 
for the discharge of any pastoral duty. This was 
therefore left entirely to Mr. Potter. On the Sab- 
bath he would read one of Burdcr's village ser- 
mons or else some passages from the word of God, 
upon which he would discourse as the Spirit gave 
him utterance. During the week he would do a 
large amount of pastoral visitation. After a hard 
day's work in the field he would walk miles to visit 



JOHN POTTER. 



39 



the sick and converse and pray with them. Nor 
did the character or professions or known hostil- 
ity of the patient to the doctrines and claims of 
religion ever deter him from attempting his spirit- 
ual good. The sick man might have been notori- 
ous as an atheist or a blasphemer or a drunkard, 
yet such was Mr. Potter's knowledge of the power 
of an awakened conscience, and, above all, such his 
faith in the power of the Holy Ghost, that persons 
whom others would have given over as hopeless 
would be visited and dealt with by Mr. Potter, and 
sometimes with a success that sent astonishment 
through the neighborhood. In case of death he 
was always the one sought for to conduct the 
funeral services. 

Nor did he confine his visits to those who were 
sick. He visited the families of neglecters of 
religion, and strove to win them to the house of 
God on the Sabbath and to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
When rumors reached him that this or that church- 
member was going astray, his spirit was stirred 
within him, and he left no stone unturned in his 
efforts to bring the wanderer home. 

Sometimes persons would move into the neigh- 
borhood who sought to poison the minds of the 
people with erroneous doctrine ; and, although far 
from delighting in controversy, such was his ab- 
horrence and dread of erroneous doctrine that he 
was ever ready to enter the lists and contend earn- 
estly for the faith once delivered to the saints. In 



40 



THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



one or two instances he challenged an errorist to 
public discussion, and so effectually did he plead 
the cause of truth that his antagonist gave up the 
contest and left the young elder master of the field. 

His familiarity with the doctrines of our Church, 
and especially with the Bible— appropriate texts 
ever at his tongue's end — gave him a great advan- 
tage over an ordinary opponent. Able as he was 
in controversy, he, however, came more and more 
to feel that the best method of meeting error was 
simply to preach the truth. Nor did the Spirit of 
God refuse to own his humble labors. At the 
meetings he was evidently present, applying the 
truth to the hearts of the hearer. One heart was 
touched, and another and another. Not unfre- 
quently, as he was at work in the field following 
the plough or wielding the scythe, he would be in- 
terrupted by the visit of some one asking, " What 
must I do to be saved ?" 

One and another passed from death unto life. 
Within four months of the time when the church 
was organized thirty-four persons were admitted to 
the church on confession of their faith, eighteen of 
whom were baptized. Among these converts were 
not only the young, but some whose heads w T ere 
white with the frosts of time. And not only did 
the Spirit of God add to the membership of the 
church, but he also, as the conduct of the converts 
showed, strengthened them with might by his 
power in the inner man. They showed by their 



JOHN POTTER. 



41 



deportment that they were rooted and grounded in 
love. Notwithstanding the miscellaneousness of 
disposition and character among that frontier 
people, the utmost peace, harmony and brotherly 
love characterized the members of the church of 
Bethlehem. 

Among the ministers sent by presbytery to preach 
at that place was the Rev. Dr. S. C. Jennings, who 
wrote : . 

" I always visited Bethlehem with interest, be- 
cause of the evidences of plain, sincere piety evinced 
by the people, and I remember seasons of com- 
munion and of visiting with Elder Potter when 
the Spirit of the Lord was wonderfully moving 
upon the minds of the people/' 

Among the incidents of the work of grace at 
that time are such as the following : 

A near neighbor of Mr. Potter was a man ad- 
dicted to profanity of speech, to open violation of 
the Lord's day. He was also engaged in selling 
intoxicating liquors without a license. His house 
was a den of iniquity. It was understood that a 
mock Lord's Supper was celebrated there on the 
Sabbath. Mr. Potter remonstrated with him, and 
threatened, if this continued, to have him brought 
before the court. The man promised that as soon 
as his present stock was exhausted he would give 
up the traffic. And he kept his word. Soon after 
he began to attend church. One day, while Mr. 

Potter was at work in the field, whom should he 

4* 



42 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



see approaching lum but this man ! He had come 
to converse with him about the interests of his soul ! 
Said he : u Mr. Potter, you don't know how bad a 
man I have been. I have been profane, and a 
drunkard and a Sabbath-breaker. Can there be 
mercy for a sinner like rae ? ,; 

Ah, we who know that man so well can see his 
eye sparkle and fill with a tear as he answers, 
" ' The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all 
sin. ?J> 

From that time the man came frequently to Mr. 
Potter's house, and sometimes accompanied by his 
wife, to converse upon the subject of religion. Mr. 
Potter would read to them from the Bible, and ex- 
plain to them the way of salvation, and pray with 
them. They both became truly pious, and united 
with the church, and they and their five children 
were baptized. Great was the influence of this 
man's change in the community. One of his 
neighbors was a very ungodly man, and he was 
deeply annoyed at the change in his friend. It 
troubled his conscience as in passing the house he 
could hear the voice of his friend praying in his 
family. And the blessed Spirit had been at work 
in his family. His wife and daughter attended 
Sabbath-school and church, and became hopefully 
pious. They were both received by the session into 
the church. The husband and father, having heard 
of it, was very angry ; he laid all the blame upon 
Mr. Potter. He threatened that if his wife and 



JOHN POTTER. 



43 



daughter went forward to the Lord's table, he would 
drag them from it. And the only time he was 
known to go to church was on the communion-day, 
Avhen he went with the avowed purpose of carrying 
his threat into execution. The wife and daughter 
did not dare go to the Lord's table. He soon left 
the neighborhood, saying that he could not stand 
so much praying around him. 

A man having been accidentally killed by the 
stroke of a windlass on a dredge-boat on the Ohio 
River opposite the place where Mr. Potter lived, 
inquiry was made for a minister to attend the fune- 
ral. The captain was informed that there was no 
minister in the neighborhood, but that there was a 
good man who would conduct the services. Mr. 
Potter was sent for. The next day was the Sab- 
bath, and, seeing a number of these men at church, 
Mr. Potter told them that he would come down in 
the evening and hold a service on the boat. Ac- 
cordingly, the evening found the men assembled in 
a keel-boat and Mr. Potter reading to them a ser- 
mon on the text, " Therefore, be ye also ready, for 
in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man 
cometh." The Holy Spirit was evidently present 
in his convincing power, and a number of the men 
came to him to converse with him about their 
souls. The captain afterward wrote to him that 
his labors resulted in the conversion of several 
of those hardened river-men. 

A youth, a relative of Mr. Potter, visited him. 



44 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



He conversed closely with him of his guilt and 
the danger of losing his soul. That youth soon 
wrote to Mr. P., saying, "I am in much trouble 
about my salvation ; write me and tell me how I 
can be saved." The letter was answered, and by 
the blessing of God on the truth written him the 
youth became a Christian. By Mr. Potter's advice 
he studied for the ministry, and has for many years 
been a successful minister of the gospel. 

An educated young man, yet unconverted, was 
about to study law, when Mr. Potter met him and 
talked to him of his soul's salvation. The young 
man did not relish the subject, yet he talked to him 
again. The young man became somewhat inter- 
ested, and wrote to Mr. Potter. His letter was an- 
swered. The truth was blessed, and the young 
man became eminently pious, studied theology and 
went as a missionary to India. 

A family, nine in number, moved into the neigh- 
borhood. They were neglecters of religion, of the 
Sabbath and of the house of God. They were 
very poor. Mr. Potter visited them, learned their 
condition, secured employment for them, invited 
them to church, and with the aid of Mrs. Potter 
furnished them with clothing fit to appear in the 
public assembly. They began at once to attend 
church, and the children entered the Sabbath- 
school. Before long the parents showed signs of 
personal concern for their souls. Mr. Potter con- 
stantly visited and prayed with them, and at length 



JOHN POTTER. 



45 



they were received into communion with the church, 
and their seven children were baptized. The man 
became an active, praying Christian, and he with 
his wife adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour 
for many a year. Their children also in due time, 
most of them, recognized the vows taken for them 
at baptism, and were admitted to the full privileges 
of church-membership. One of them is a sub- 
stantial and useful ruling elder in the United 
Presbyterian Church, and tells this story of his 
family history. 

After the organization of the church in 1832 
the need of a church edifice pressed hard upon the 
people. Accordingly, measures were taken to 
secure the prize. As usual, the heaviest portion 
of the task fell upon Mr. Potter. One proposition 
after another coming to naught, he prepared a sub- 
scription-paper, headed it himself with a subscrip- 
tion of fifty dollars, went first through the neigh- 
borhood and secured all he could, and then went 
abroad among his friends in other places and 
secured additional pledges. Mr. Conner gave 
thirty dollars, and also the land occupied by the 
church and burying-ground. 

At length the frame of the church was ready to 
go up, and now a serious question arose. In those 
days no temperance societies existed. Few men 
were to be found who did not make larger or 
smaller use of intoxicating!; drink as a beverage, 
and a house-raising without whisky was a proceed- 



46 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



ing without precedent in that region. The raising 
of the frame of a new house was an occasion of 
wide-extended interest. 

It furnished an excuse for a holiday, and the 
assembling of so many who in those times did not 
often meet opened a way for renewal of friend- 
ships, the distribution of the accumulated gossip of 
many a neighborhood, and the discussion of the 
political and other questions of the day. But not 
the least among the attractions was the liberal 
supply of whisky which formed an essential Con- 
comitant of such house-raising. When, however, 
the question was put to Mr. Potter as to the num- 
ber of gallons of whisky he would have provided, 
his answer was, "Not a gill" — " But you cannot 
have a house-raising without whisky." — " By the 
grace of God we'll try." The day came, and the 
people with it from near and far. The erection of 
a church was something some of them had never 
seen. The day was beautiful and bright. The 
church frame went up without whisky, and the 
poople were as sober at night as they had been 
in the morning, and a great deal happier than if 
the erection had been accompanied with drunken- 
ness and drunken brawls. And it illustrates the 
influence of one man and of one bold stand for 
the right that this church-raising was the beginning 
of a new era in that community. 

They were able to go so far as to enclose the 
building and plaster it. But for years the pews 



JOHN POTTER. 



47 



consisted of boards resting on blocks of wood, and 
the work-bench formed the pulpit. But the Spirit 
of the King of heaven was as frequently and as 
cordially present in that rough tabernacle as in the 
costliest minster with its mosaic ceiling, stained- 
glass windows, thundering organ and dim religious 
light. 

On one occasion the Rev. Dr. Riddle, pastor of 
the Third Church at Pittsburg, preached for them 
by the appointment of presbytery, and held a com- 
munion-service. Seeing their poverty and the sore 
need of pulpit and pews, he bore word of these 
things to the people of his church, who at once 
raised the money needed to fit up the church with 
pews. The ladies of the congregation also went to 
work and raised money to put up the pulpit. 

Still, they had no pastor. But they were by no 
means destitute of watchful supervision. Once 
every month the faithful session of the little 
church met from house to house in the homes of 
the elders, and spent a whole evening in talking 
over the interests of the church and praying 
together for its prosperity. As the time for the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper drew near, the 
session, under the lead of Mr. Potter, took meas- 
ures to realize the greatest possible amount of good 
from the occasion. Weeks before the day came 
the announcement would be made and the expec- 
tations of the people awakened. The adminis- 
tration of the sacrament became at once the subject 



48 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



of many prayers. Worldly affairs would be so 
adjusted that nothing should interfere with the 
attendance upon the ordinance. 

Jesus was born in a stable, and before the build- 
ing of the church at Bethlehem the session some- 
times met in Mr. Potter's barn, and there, amidst 
the lowing of oxen, applicants for the communion 
were examined and received into the church, and 
John Potter poured as fervent prayers to God in 
that barn as perhaps were ever offered in the ear 
of a listening God. It was the house of God, for 
the Lord was there. 

The Friday before communion-day was observed 
as a day of fasting and prayer. On Saturday the 
congregation met for worship ; the communion Sab- 
bath was a great day in their Israel. The people 
assembled early to attend the communicants' prayer- 
meeting. Many people from the neighboring con- 
gregations would be present at the services. The 
house was crowded. After sermon came a recess 
of thirty minutes, during which time the table was 
spread before the pulpit. On the reassembling of 
the congregation a hymn would be given out, 
during the singing of which members would leave 
the pews and sit down at the tables. The sepa- 
ration of families often produced a profoundly sol- 
emn impression, it intimated so touchingly a future 
and final separation at the judgment-seat of Christ! 
When those seated at the table had partaken of 
the elements they would withdraw, and another 



JOHN POTTER. 



49 



company take their places. To each company a 
few earnest words were spoken. 

On Monday morning the congregation again 
assembled, and often the meeting was intensely 
solemn, and as they reluctantly parted they felt 
that they had been to the house of God and to 
the gate of heaven. 

At the various communions during the time that 
Mr. Potter was virtually pastor of the church one 
hundred and ninety-four persons were received into 
the communion of the church. 

In 1844 the Rev. Samuel Hair was installed 
pastor over the Bethlehem church, which now had 
one hundred and fifty members on its communion- 
roll, and Mr. Potters services were no longer so 
much needed in that field. But his love for souls, 
his unquenchable zeal and his marvelous skill in 
dealing with men had made him widely known, and 
he was earnestly solicited to enter the service 
of the American Tract Society as a colporteur. 
This proposition required no little careful and 
prayerful consideration. He was the head of a 
family consisting of a wife and five sons ; it was a 
serious question whether duty called him to leave 
them and spend his time in traveling up and down 
the land. But as he thought and prayed the light 
began to break. He saw that his sons were near- 
ing an age when they could support themselves; 
his wife, equally devoted to the great work with 

himself was a woman of good business capacity; 

5 ■ D 



50 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



and at length the conviction became strong that he 
ought to leave his home and enter this wide and 
promising field of labor. His commission came, 
and he began his work in his own neighborhood, 
visiting families, talking w T ith them, praying with 
them, selling or giving religious books and tracts. 

For eleven years he continued in this work, see- 
ing the seed he scattered spring up in many a field. 
His custom was to visit every family within his 
reach. Not unfrequently he w T as warned against 
venturing into a given house because of the exceed- 
ing wickedness of the people and the certainty that 
only insult and abuse awaited him. But those 
~ were the very houses to which he was sure to go, 
and almost never did lie fail of gaining an entrance 
and a hearing. If the parents scowled he w r ould 
take from his pack some bright-covered books for 
children, and, offering one to a little girl and 
another to a little boy, he would win the little 
ones, and through them the mother, and sometimes 
through them the whole infidel family. 

At one time, as he was going from house to house 
in company with an elder of the church within the 
bounds of which he w T as laboring, they approached 
the dwelling of a coarse, notorious infidel phy- 
sician. The elder advised the omission of this 
man's abode, but this was not Mr. Potter's way ; he 
insisted on entering and meeting the enemy face to 
face. The elder, however, walked on, not caring 
to encounter the vulgar blasphemy of the infidel 



JOHN POTTER. 



51 



doctor. Mr. Potter entered and inquired for the 
head of the house, but to his regret the doctor was 
not at home, but his family were there. They 
treated him courteously ; he talked with them and 
prayed with them, and gave them tracts, and went 
on his way with the pleasant consciousness that he 
had done his duty, and with the faith to believe 
that his work would not be in vain. 

The following extract from a letter of one then 
high in office under the national government, and 
a well-known ruling elder in our Church, tells 
another story of the zeal and Christian fidelity of 
this model Christian worker. In his rounds as a 
colporteur he fell in with the young man men- 
tioned here. 

"My Dear Friend: 

"My son has just shown me your truly Chris- 
tian letter to him. I am truly thankful to you for 
the deep interest you have shown in his spiritual 
welfare. He is not yet, I fear, converted to God, 
but I feel encouraged to hope that a work of grace 
has been commenced in him which will issue in his 
being finally planted on the Rock of Ages. Ey the 
blessing of God, from what you said to him he felt 
deeply, even agonizingly, a sense of his lost con- 
dition. He wrote me soon after your interview 
with him, and from the tenor of his letter it was 
apparent that his conviction was pungent, and, I 
doubt not, the work of God's Spirit." 



THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



Both the father and the son were well known to 
the writer, and the son not only became a member 
of the Church, but a minister of the gospel and a 
missionary among the heathen. 

As opportunity offered he would give notice of a 
prayer-meeting, at which he would expound a por- 
tion of the word of God as seen in the light of 
his own mind and experience, and impress it with 
copious illustration drawn from his wide observa- 
tion, and urge the gospel offer home upon sinners 
with all the earnestness of a dying man speaking 
to dying men. His addresses to Sabbath-schools 
were numerous and full of unction. Time and 
ajrain has he found himself in the midst of a 
congregation during a period of religious coldness 
and decline, and, going from house to house with 
his books and tracts and prayers, exhortations and 
tears, he has seen the people roused to a new life, 
and many are the instances in which a precious 
revival of religion has followed. 

One Sabbath he entered the house of God, and 
the minister, seeing him, came down from the 
pulpit and said, " Mr. Potter, you are familiar 
with revivals of religion ; come into the pulpit and 
occupy the time of this service in telling what you 
have seen of the reviving grace of God." He 
complied with the request; and we can see him 
with tears in his eyes and his whole frame shaking 
with emotion as he tells his stirring tale. The 
result was an awakening in that church which 



JOHN POTTER. 



53 



brought more than one hundred souls to the com- 
munion- table ) and it is on record, by one who 
closely watched his career, that in a surprising 
number of instances revivals of religion followed 
his labors as colporteur within the bounds of 
congregations. 

After about eleven years' service as a colporteur 
of the American Tract Society, he accepted the 
office of collecting agent for the same society. 
But such was his love for souls and for his Re- 
deemer that he still acted the missionary in all his 
rounds among the people. Being a Presbyterian 
and a ruling elder, and thus imbued with the spirit 
of order and law. he was very careful, when he 
entered a district to collect money for the Tract 
Society, first to visit the pastor of the church 
within whose bounds he wished to labor, and secure 
his consent. If agreeable to the pastor, he would 
address the people in the church, lay open his 
method of working, tell the story of some precious 
revival, and then the following week go from house 
to house, talking and praying with the people, and 
gathering whatever they chose to give him for his 
cause. 

We believe that it is the conviction of the officers 
of the American Tract Society that a servant more 
devoted, more faithful, more successful, was never 
in its employ. Indeed, one long connected with 
that society writes with earnest emphasis his full 
persuasion that even Harlan Page was, to say the 



54 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



least, in no degree the superior of Mr. Potter in 
faith, in zeal, in prayerful ness or in success in 
winning souls to Christ. 

The Rev. S. T. Wells, now of California, who 
was well acquainted with Mr. Potter and his work, 
writes suggestively : u When a young man, a farmer, 
working a rough, rugged hill-farm, can take a 
neighborhood as rough as that and make it into 
a garden of the Lord, and rear a family of boys 
to be all of them successful ministers of the gospel, 
how rapidly the world might be brought to Christ 
were those professing godliness to become truly 
pious, earnest workers for their Lord, fully de- 
voted to his service !" 

In the year 1870 a letter came to the writer 
from Mr. Potter, saying that he was now too old 
for the rough work of traveling over the Western 
liiils, and asking about work as a city missionary. 
One Sabbath morning I stated this to the congre- 
gation, dwelling upon the need of such work in the 
city, and upon the admirable qualifications of Mr. 
Potter for the work. At the close of the service 
that princely man, Herman J. Lombaert, came to 
me and said, "I will support that man." I wrote 
to Mr. Potter. He came, and for a long time Mr. 
Lombaert paid his salary out of his own purse. 
When he was taken from us other gentlemen of 
the church took the burden upon them, and for 
eight years he went up and down in this city as 
a colporteur of the Presbyterian Board of Publi- 



JOHN POTTER. 



55 



cation and as the missionary of the West Spruce 
Street Presbyterian Church. 

When now we see a man going to and fro 
through the world for years in succession in the 
ardent pursuit of one object, in tireless effort for 
the spiritual good of his fellow-men, we natu- 
rally ask after the moving force which produces 
all this activity. Whence comes it? Plow is it 
perpetuated? How is it replenished? 

Well, as charity begins at home, so the piety that 
is genuine, endurable and always well replenished 
begins and is nourished and exercised in the seclu- 
sion of home. The family is the unit in the 
Church of Christ. It is the most ancient of insti- 
tutions among men. Before Church or State existed 
the family existed. It is the nursery of the Church 
and the nursery of piety ; and as the head of a 
household Mr. Potter was a model man. Many a 
time, when out with his boys in the woods or fields, 
he would say, " Come, let us go to God in prayer;" 
and there, under the bending sky, by the side of a 
log, they would kneel together in prayer ; and those 
sons say that there is many a spot on that old farm 
hallowed in their memories "down to earth's pro- 
found and up to heaven." 

The fire on the altar of family devotion was 
never suffered to go down. His children cannot 
remember a single instance in which family prayer 
was omitted. If he was about to set out on a 
journey, and the whistle of the train was already 



56 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



ringing in the air, still he went on with the chapter 
and the prayer. If he missed the train, he would 
not miss the opportunity to pray once more in his 
household circle. 

To his closet duty he was as faithful as he was 
to his religious duty in the family. In his earlier 
family life his house was too small for the seclusion 
he desired for his secret devotions, and he was wont 
to go to the barn and there pour out his heart in 
prayer. Among the earliest recollections of his 
children are the sounds of their father's voice re- 
sounding through the old barn as he pleaded with 
God for a blessing on them and on the Church of 
God ; and this not only in " leafy June," but in 
the time when frost sparkled in the air and snow 
lay deep upon the ground. And such was the 
force of his example that his eldest son when at 
the age of six or seven used also to go to the barn 
to say his prayers ; and many a time the father was 
seen helping the boy over the snow and ice that lay 
between the house and the barn, that the child 
might put up his prayers to God in the place 
where his father prayed. " As the twig is bent the 
tree is inclined and to this day that twig, now a 
tree of fifty summers, is inclined in the same holy 
direction. 

His faith in prayer was like that of the apostle 
Paul. Every enterprise of his life was entered 
upon with fervent prayer. It was his custom to 
send up prayer to God for people he met in the 



JOHN POTTER. 



57 



street, and what manna was to the hungry Israel- 
ite the word of God was to him. He could say 
with all his heart, " Thy words were found, and I 
did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy 
and rejoicing of my heart." 

His faith in a minute, all-directing Providence 
was like that of Abraham. 

A minister invited him to assist him in the week 
of prayer. He first took counsel, as he says, of 
God, and went. The station, however, was six 
miles from the church. He did not know the way, 
but he writes : " A kind Providence sent a sleigh 
with two horses and a young man to drive them, 
who took me where I wanted to go." 

His son John was very ill of consumption. 
There was no hope of his recovery, and the father 
Avas very anxious to be at home when his child 
should be taken away. But an urgent call came 
for his presence elsewhere. What should he do ? 
He was greatly at a loss to know the will of God. 
He said to his dying son, " If you wish me to stay, 
I will stay •" his son said, " Father I think you 
ought to go." He went, but he went putting up 
an agonizing prayer that he might be allowed to 
return before his child died. He did return, and 
afterward he wrote, u How good is God to me! I 
came home on Friday, and found John much 
weaker, but still enjoying that same heavenly calm. 
On Sabbath morning, after the sun had risen in its 
brightness, he asked to be raised up on the bedside. 



58 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



I asked him if the Saviour was still with him. 
With a sweet smile he nodded assent. He had 
prayed to be taken home on the sacred Sabbath, 
and his prayer was answered. I thank God for 
granting my request to be present at John's death 
and to have him die in my arms. Glory to God !" 
And he adds : " I think God is blessing John's sick- 
ness and death to a great many. We had a very 
large prayer-meeting at our house on Sabbath even- 
ing, while John's body lay in the front room, and 
there is to be another prayer-meeting this evening." 

The tone of his piety appears in a clear light in 
the following lines to his oldest son and daughter- 
in-law : "If I know my own heart, I do desire to 
be a holy man of God and be instrumental in 
leading sinners to Jesus. I entreat you both to 
pray earnestly for me every day that God would 
make me very useful. Dear children, keep near 
sweet, precious Jesus. Keep up an hourly corre- 
spondence with that dear heavenly Friend. How 
glorious will it be when we get home to see Jesus 
as he is ! How much happiness it will give us to 
gaze on sweet Jesus ! and how much more lovely 
will we be, for we shall then be like Jesus !" 

In the same letter he writes: "Dear , do 

you not remember the season of prayer we enjoyed 
at the haystack? I think you will unite with me 
in thanking God for his great goodness in answer- 
ing our broken prayers. I think the Lord has 
been with me in my work. I made a speech last 



JOHN POTTER, 



59 



Sabbath in the Baptist church. The Lord helped 
me. Much interest was manifested. I visited their 
families during the Aveek, and at their request held 
three prayer-meetings. There seemed to be a 
waking up among them." 

Mr. Potter was burdened with an almost over- 
whelming sense of the value of the soul and of its 
danger while out of Christ. The pressure of this 
burden was seen in his conversation, and in his 
prayers, and in his exhortations, and in his tireless 
labors. Even at social gatherings this topic could 
not be omitted, and in most cases he would see to 
it that a social meeting was closed with prayer. 

Blessed are the peacemakers ; and Mr. Potter re- 
ceived the title of peacemaker in his neighborhood. 
As soon as he learned of any serious misunder- 
standing among the neighbors which threatened a 
suit at law, he would seek out the parties, secure a 
calm statement of the facts, kneel with them in 
prayer, and in many an instance the difficulty was 
adjusted and no little heartburning avoided. 

In his intercourse with the men of the world he 
was uniformly kind and affable, but such were his 
known sentiments and such his Christian bearing 
that very rarely did any man venture an oath or 
an unseemly word in his presence; and when such 
an occurrence took place it met with a rebuke such 
as pious, honest indignation compelled. 

A full day's work was never enough to satisfy 
his zeal if in the evening he could find anything 



60 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



more to do. To his son he writes : " Last Monday 
night we had a large cottage prayer-meeting. . A 
dear good brother who assists me made a very 
good address on the work of the Holy Spirit. I 
enjoyed it very much, and the people did also. . The 
time to close the meeting being at hand, I said that 
we would have one more prayer and God's children 
present would unite in that prayer, and that any 
present who wished to be remembered in that 
prayer might hold up the hand. Quite a number 
of hands went up. Then we had a very solemn 
prayer. Sowing good seed is not enough. It must 
have the rain of the Holy Ghost." 

No trait of Mr. Potter's spiritual life was more 
prominent than his dependence upon the power 
of the Holy Spirit. Every holy stir within him, 
every sign of spiritual life among the people, every 
tear of contrition on a sinner's cheek, every special 
exhibition of spiritual warmth in a prayer-meeting, 
he ascribed heartily and wholly to the blessed Holy 
Ghost, 

His bearing in his work was that of a prophet 
of God. There was a kind of authority in his 
tone and manner which not many could resist. 
Entering a house one morning, he found the woman 
at the wash tub. After a word of salutation and 
kindly inquiry if all was well in her home, he pro- 
posed prayer. She answered that she had her work 
to do, and had no time then for prayer. "Not 
time to pray?" said he, in his solemn, earnest tone; 



JOITX POTT EE. 



61 



" why, it is God who gives you the health and 
strength you have to do the work of your house- 
hold." It was but a moment before she dropped 
the clothes and was on her knees, while he poured 
out for her soul and her family one of those fer- 
vent petitions with which we are so familiar. 

His perseverance was indomitable. Calling at a 
certain house, he was roughly told that his presence 
was not desired. He went away, and when he 
reached home he made the family in that house the 
subject of special prayer. A few days after, being 
in the neighborhood, he called again, only to meet 
with a similar rebuff. Again he took the case to 
God in prayer. A third time he called, and a 
fourth time, with like result, but following each 
visit with renewed supplication. The fifth time 
the door was thrown wide open to receive him, for 
God had preceded him with a trying providence. 
A little child lay dead, and Sorrow cried for Chris- 
tian consolation. 

Knocking at the door of a house, a woman an- 
swered the call, and seeing the missionary she said 
in a severe tone, " I know all about you, and I 
want nothing to do with you." 

"Madam," said the missionary, "your house is 
your own, but I shall have to say at the great day 
of account that I called at your door to tell you 
about the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shut the door 
against me ; and inasmuch as you do it unto me, 
you do it unto him." 
6 



62 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



"Come in," said the woman. After a little she 
asked him to pray with her, and when he left she 
asked him to call again. 

Mr. Potter was a man of one idea, and that idea 
was the glory of Christ in the salvation of sonls. 
One Christmas morning a man of intemperate habits 
called on him to make him a Christmas present. 
Mr. Potter had visited the man's mother during her 
illness, and had been the means of no little com- 
fort to her soul, and the son felt it to be the least 
that he could do to make this slight acknowledg- 
ment of the service. When word came to Mr. 
Potter in his room that this man was there on this 
errand, he said earnestly, "Keep him till I come 
down ; don't let him go." His one thought was, 
not the present, but the soul of the man who 
brought it. He soon made his appearance, and 
after thanking the man for the gift, entered at once 
upon an earnest exhortation to reform and to pre- 
pare to follow his sainted mother to the skies. 

And withal he was a man of large and generous 
liberality. People who saw him in his plain attire 
going up and down our narrow streets might sup- 
pose that he was dependent for a livelihood upon 
what he received as city missionary. This was not 
the case. He was very far from being a rich man, 
but he had means enough, had he so pleased, to 
spend his advancing years at his ease in a quiet, 
comfortable home. But to him, with perishing 
sinners within reach of his voice, this was impossi- 



JOIIX POTTER. 



63 



ble. Work he must ; and he was constantly draw- 
ing upon his own means to enable him to live and 
to give, as he was constantly doing, to relieve the 
wants of the poor and needy with whom he was 
coming continually into contact. 

In the list of subscriptions for the erection of the 
Bethlehem church his stood at the head, and was the 
largest, and in Philadelphia many a poor family was 
saved from ejection upon the sidewalk for lack of 
ability to pay the rent-bill by his own benefactions, 
increased with what he solicited from others. 

It is of course impossible to put the results of 
such a life into sentences. They defy statistics. 
AVho can tell the amount of health-giving vitality 
that yonder tree in the landscape has imparted to 
the atmosphere during the century of its growth ? 
Who can tell the amount of vapor that yonder 
sparkling lake has contributed during the period 
of its sojourn in the basin where God placed it to 
moisten the air and form those clouds white enough 
to be the chariots of angels, or in the sunset sky 
gorgeous enough to be the mantle of God? Could 
we gather the families among whom he has been 
going as steadily as the sun rolls for these eight 
years; the poor that he has relieved with his bene- 
factions; the widows whose rent he has paid ; the 
women and children for whom he has secured 
raiment that they might go to the house of God ; 
the sick that he has visited; the dying and be- 
reaved that he has comforted ; the men he has 



64 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



been the means of reforming, and all the others he 
has blessed, — we should hear a chorus of benediction 
worth more than all the hoarse huzzas that ever 
rent the air from the lips of men shouting the fame 
won on the field of battle. The very children sing 
his j) raise. " Ah/' said a mother to me, "just as 
soon as the children saw him they would run to 
meet him and take him by the hand and lead him 
into the house." 

He asked me once to go and see a boy of some 
ten years of age who was dying of consumption. 
The mother said to me, "He thinks the world of 
Mr. Potter. The other day he was out of his head, 
and when my back was turned he got out of bed, 
and when I looked again he was gone. I went after 
him, and I found him halfway down the stairs; 
and when I asked him where he was going he said, 
'For Mr. Potter.'" And the woman continued: 
" Mr. Potter was here one evening before we had 
lighted the gas. He talked and prayed with the 
boy, and then I called his attention and pointed 
with my thumb over my shoulder, and he looked 
and then saw my husband, who was there intoxi- 
cated. He went to him ; he talked and prayed 
with him; he made him promise to go with him 
that night to the temperance meeting. He never 
let him alone till he had got him to sign the pledge. 
And now, for a long time, every Saturday night he 
has come straight home and given me his wages." 

Another woman, mother of a family of six chil- 



JOHN POTTER. 



dren, said to me, "We don't get half so much money 
these hard times as we used to, but we are twice as 
happy. For then my husband drank; and when 
the head of the family drinks, no matter how much 
money you have, everything goes wrong. But Mr. 
Potter came and got my husband to sign the pledge 
and to go to church, and now he is an entirely 
changed man. He never drinks anything. He is 
a member of church. He prays in his family 
morning and evening." Here is a whole family 
reconstructed, as it were, through the labors of this 
man. The abundance of his labors is indicated in 
the following statement : 

For eight years in succession he visited, on an 
average, three thousand two hundred and forty 
families a year, making an aggregate of twenty- 
five thousand nine hundred and twenty families. 
In these families the truth was urged home upon 
saint and sinner, and during the eight years more 
than twenty-four thousand prayers were offered in 
the families he visited. A good tract was left at 
each visit, and occasionally a volume of religious 
thought. A Bible or Testament was given to those 
who had none. One largely interested in evan- 
gelistic work writes me : " Brother Potter attended 
our mission-service every Sabbath afternoon. He 
held a prayer-meeting every Monday evening. He 
visited our Tuesday evening prayer-meeting, con- 
ducted by the laborers at the mission. During the 
summer months, while our Friday evening meeting 

6* E 



66 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



was suspended, he conducted a prayer- meeting in 
Burton street, and this prayer-meeting is still con- 
tinued." 

In his rounds from house to house during the eight 
years of his life in Philadelphia he gave away nearly 
five thousand volumes of the works published by 
the Board of Publication, and more than half a 
million of religious tracts. And knowing as we 
do what a single volume may do or a single tract, 
by the blessing of God upon it, and especially when 
the volume is accompanied by faithful, tearful ex- 
hortation and prayer, we may safely assume that 
this devoted worker for Christ thus sowed seeds 
that will yield a large and rich harvest for heav- 
enly garners. 

As the result in part of these manifold labors, 
a considerable number of family altars have been 
erected, some two hundred and fifty pupils gath- 
ered into Sabbath-schools, and a number of persons 
reclaimed from habits of intemperance. The meet- 
ings held by Messrs. Moody and Sankey, Mr. Potter 
attended day and night for nine weeks, during which 
time he conversed with at least one hundred and 
twenty anxious inquirers. Many of these he fol- 
lowed to their homes, to converse and pray with 
them till they were hopefully converted to God. 
After these meetings were closed the gas-men at 
Twenty-third and Market streets invited him to 
lecture to them. These men, he said, proved the 
most attentive listeners he ever addressed. Every 



JOHN POTTER. 



67 



other day for ten weeks, at the hour of noon, he 
visited and addressed them. 

There is good reason for believing that during 
the eight years he labored in Philadelphia he was 
the means of leading at least four hundred souls to 
the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the 
world, and in all probability the number saved 
through his instrumentality during his life consid- 
erably exceeded eight hundred souls. At least twenty 
young men through his instrumentality found their 
way into the^ gospel ministry. One voting man in 
a Western town was so impressed with what he saw 
of Mr. Potter's course of life that he was led to the 
Saviour ; then he became a colporteur, then a min- 
ister, then a missionary to India; and then, his 
health failing there, he returned to his own coun- 
try, and he is now a faithful and successful preacher 
of the gospel. 

But the longest lives must come to an end. Early 
in July, 1878, Mr. Potter called upon one of our 
families in Helmuth street, and scarcely had he 
taken his seat when he fell forward on his face, and 
for a few moments remained in a state of insen- 
sibility. When he came partially to himself he 
placed his hand on his left side, as if it were the 
seat of acute distress. He soon recovered, and, 
after resting a while, went on his way, declining 
the proffered company of a companion to see him 
safely to his home. This attack was the beginning 
of the end. 



68 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



Soon after he left Philadelphia for the home of 
his son, the Rev. Gilbert M. Potter, at Sharpsburg, 
Pa., who, suffering from ill-health, went to Clifton 
Springs, leaving his father in charge of his two con- 
gregations. For a month he lectured every Sabbath 
in both congregations and assisted in the Sabbath- 
school. On the return of the absent son, Mr. Pot- 
ter went to spend a season with another son at 
Darlington, Beaver county, Pa. At times he com- 
plained of a pain in the region of the heart. On 
Sabbath, August 25th, he went to church and heard 
his son preach on the life and death of Stephen, at 
the close of which he offered one of his fervent, im- 
passioned prayers. On his return he was heard to 
exclaim, "Oh, what a glorious death was that of 
Stephen !" Tears came into his eyes as he spoke 
of Jesus standing to welcome the beloved martyr 
into heaven. A few days before his death, at family 
worship, he selected the 465th hymn in the Hymnal, 
beginning — 

" Father of eternal grace, 
Glorify thyself in me." 

Tuesday, August 27th, he seemed better — rode 
out several miles with his son, and greatly enjoyed 
the drive. He talked freely of the exceeding good- 
ness of God ; of events that had occurred many 
years ago; of his satisfaction at seeing his sons set- 
tled in congregations where their labors were ap- 
preciated by the people and blessed of God. That 



JOHN POTTER. 



69 



day he read the Epistle of James and a part of one 
of the Epistles of Peter, also an historical sermon, 
and studied the Sabbath-school lesson for the fol- 
lowing Sabbath. The evening was spent in cheer- 
ful conversation with the family, heaven being 
largely the burden of thought. He conducted 
family worship, reading the fourth chapter of 2 
Corinthians, and led in a fervent prayer. At ten 
o'clock he went to his room, and was soon seized 
With pain and shortness of breath, and for three 
hours suffered acute distress. About three o'clock 
he fell asleep, waking again in half an hour very 
sick. Again he slept, and about half-after four in 
the morning his son noticed a spasmodic movement 
in his frame, and the silver cord was loosed and the 
golden bowl was broken ; the pitcher w r as broken 
at the fountain and the wheel broken at the cistern, 
and the spirit returned to the God who gave it. 

This was on Wednesday morning, August 28th. 
On the Friday morning following funeral services 
were conducted at the house of his son, in Darling- 
ton, by the Pev. D. H. Laverty, assisted by the 
Rev. P. S. Morton, the Pev. J. W. Johnston, the 
Pev. Samuel Patterson and the Pev. Hugh Stur- 
geon, the last two being ministers in the United 
Presbyterian Church. The remains were then re- 
moved to the Pine Creek church, seven miles from 
Pittsburg, where his wife had been buried nine 
years before. Services were here conducted by the 
Pev. Thomas Lawrence of Sharpsburg, the Pev. 



70 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



Dr. A. Williams, the Rev. Dr. E. E. Swift, the 
Rev. G. M. Hair, the Rev. Jonathan Wilson, mis- 
sionary from Siam, and the Rev. M. A. Parkinson ; 
the last two had been members of Mr. Potter's 
Bible-class at Bethlehem. Just as the sun was 
going down the body was lowered into the grave, 
to rest till the resurrection. 

The following kindly testimonials are well worth 
preserving : 

The Rev. William M. Paxton, D. D., wrote years 
ago : " Mr. John Potter is an elder in one of our 
Presbyterian churches. I have known him for a 
long time, both in his public and private character, 
and take great pleasure in commending him to the 
confidence and Christian regard of my brethren in 
the ministry. He has labored with great accept- 
ance in the city of Pittsburg, and has won for him- 
self the entire confidence and warm affection of all 
our Christian people. As an expression of my 
grateful sense of the good which he has accom- 
plished here I volunteer this testimonial to his 
worth." 

The following is from the Rev. W. S. Plumer, 
D. D. : 

Theological Seminary, Columbia, S. C, Oct. 5, 1878. 

" For nearly a quarter of a century I have know T n 
and loved Mr. John Potter. In all that time I do 
not think I have ever known him to manifest an 
unchristian temper about anything. He seemed 



JOHX POTTER. 



71 



never to forget the worth of souls, the shortness 
of time or the value of opportunity for doing good 
to men. His judgment was sound and clear, un- 
affected by passion or prejudice. His manners were 
easy and inoffensive. He easily introduced the sub- 
ject of religion whenever he chose. He had great 
courage in pleading Christ's cause. His addresses 
in public meetings were models of simplicity, good 
sense and piety. He was a very humble man ; T 
suppose no man ever regarded him as proud or 
vain. He well understood the apostle when he 
said, c Condescend to men of low estate/ I never 
had a truer friend ; I hope to spend my eternity 
with him." 

To give insight into Mr. Potter's methods of 
• Christian work, we add one of his monthly reports 
in his own simple, earnest style: 

"Visiting a family, the lady said she was not a 
Christian ; she desired to be, but she felt something 
holding her back. I told her the flesh lusteth 
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. 
There is a warfare, but if she would earnestly pray 
for God's holy Spirit to work in her to will and to 
do of his own good pleasure, he would certainly 
give her the victory. The great point was for her 
to confess and forsake all her sins, and to believe 
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and she would be saved. 
She said she had been to the mourners' bench, and 
the Methodist minister had tried to make her be- 



72 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



lieve that she was converted, but she was sure she 
was not ; now she was anxious to be a true Chris- 
tian. I told her the parable of the Prodigal Son 
and other passages of God's word to make the plan 
of salvation as plain as I could, urging her to press 
into the kingdom without delay, telling her I would 
now pray for her, and desired her in the time of 
prayer to dedicate herself entirely to God's service. 
After prayer I gave her a 6 Come to Jesus/ urging 
her to adopt the sentiment of the hymn 6 Just as I 
Am/ — In another family the lady told me they were 
not church-members, and did not attend church. 
I told her what God said of the danger of the 
sinner. She evidently felt the power of the truth — 
shed tears. I told her of the love of God in the 
provisions of the gospel, and salvation was offered 
to her as free as God's air she breathed, and now, 
if she would accept of it and believe on the Lord 
Jesus with her whole heart, God's word for it she 
would be saved. I prayed with her. I hope the 
Lord has converted her. — Visiting a family in a 
court, found two daughters sick with consumption. 
They have no pastor. I took pains to show them 
the danger of the impenitent sinner, and then the 
willingness and ability of Jesus to save them ; then 
prayed with them. The parents are church-mem- 
bers; they were very thankful. — Calling at a door, 
the lady refused to let me in. I went on and visited 
other families ; that same woman came after me 
and invited me to come back and visit them. I 



JOHX POTTER. 



73 



did so; bad a very interesting visit. She is not a 
church-member, but promised to attend church. 
She had recently lost her husband. — Visiting a 
family, none of them church-members, I showed 
them the danger of neglecting this great salvation, 
and the importance of at once believing on the 
Lord Jesus Christ with the whole heart. I prayed 
with them. — From some cause fewer families refuse 
to let me into their houses than formerly. 

" I think I feel more of God's sensible presence 
with me. Frequently I am urged to visit families 
again. Visited a family ; some of them had been 
members of the Church, but had backslidden. I 
showed them the fearful consequences of such a 
course ; told them what God said of apostates ; I 
prayed with and for them. The lady told me of a 
sick woman up stairs; I found her sick with con- 
sumption. I presented truth to her as appropriately 
as I could, and prayed with her. She was very 
thankful — urged me to visit her frequently, as she 
had no pastor. — Visiting in a court, found a young 
man who had been badly beaten in a fight, and was 
in bed. Three of his wicked companions were pres- 
ent. I gave them all a plain, kind talk about their 
guilt, and the result of spending their youth in 
breaking God's commands — urged them with all 
kindness and solemnity to remember their Creator 
now in the days of their youth. — Visiting another 
family, the lady said they had not been attending 
church, for her husband had been engaged in a gas- 

7 



74 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



factory, and he had to work on the Sabbath, and she 
did not go to church because he did not go. I showed 
her how wicked it was for them to neglect the means 
God had ordained for their salvation. She promised 
me they would attend church here. — Visited a good 
old man in a third story. He had fallen down stairs 
and got badly hurt — was there alone day and night. 
I comforted him with the consolations of the gos- 
pel, and prayed with him. He was very thankful — • 
said I had greatly benefited him. — Visited an in- 
teresting family of six children and the parents, the 
mother a church-member. I talked kindly to the 
children ; have the promise of three of them to 
attend our Sabbath-school. The mother has her 
church connection in the country. I advised that 
she get her certificate and hand it in here, which 
she promised to do soon. I talked plainly to the 
father of his exposure to the wrath of God, and 
showed the plan of salvation and prayed with them. 
Promised to visit them in time to come." 

Among the lessons that speak to us from such a 
record is the immeasurable service possible to a soul 
fully imbued with the spirit of Him who went about 
doing good. Here is a plain man, of little preten- 
sion to high education or large culture, for many 
years toiling hard, day by day, on a farm, and yet 
from the time of his first communion, at the age 
of seventeen, working with untiring diligence and 
marked success in winning souls to Christ. The 
secret of this man's power and success was not ex- 



JOHN POTTER. 



75 



traordinary intellect, though he was by no means 
an intellectual weakling: it was not specially favor- 
able opportunities: it was a deep-toned piety; it 
was love for souls ; it was a vivid realization of the 
truth of God's word and of the power of prayer. 
The God of the Bible, all holy, all just and all 
love, was to him a being as real as his own self. 
What less than this should be said of any Chris- 
tian ? And if the seven millions of communicants 
in evangelical churches in our country were like him, 
the light of the sure-coming millennial morning 
would soon be seen streaming over the eastern hills. 

A second lesson is the immeasurable importance of 
the colporteur agency. It is not too much to say that 
without an agency involving the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the colporteur system the gospel will never 
be preached to every crecdure. The pastors can no 
more overtake this work than they can each be in 
four places at the same time. Of the forty-five mil- 
lions of people in our country, at least one-fouHh 
never enter a house of worship. In the city of 
]Vew York there are church accommodations in 
evangelical churches for not over one-third of the 
people; the same is true of Philadelphia; and 
unless an agency be employed to go from door to 
door and carry the gospel into the homes of the 
people, the people will perish ! And all through 
our land, especially in the more thinly-settled por- 
tions of the West, tens of thousands of families are 
never reached except as they are reached by this 



76 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 



agency. It combines three powerful elements of 
success — the living book, the living voice and 
direct personal contact and appeal. 

The Living Booh. — Calling once at the house of 
an attendant upon our church, I met the lady at the 
door. She returned, and after a few words I left 
her a copy of James's Anxious Inquirer, with the 
request that she would read it. Not long after she 
sent for me, and I found her in an anguish of mind 
over her sins and guilt in the sight of an all-holy 
God. One who is now in the pulpit told me that 
when he was a sailor he went one day to his chest, 
and under some clothing he found a tract that some 
one, mother or sister, had slipped in there. It was 
entitled The Swearer's Prayer. He read it and re- 
read it, and his blood chilled while he read. He 
went to a group of his fellow-sailors and said, 
" Shipmates, if what I read here is true, we are in 
a bad way." The result was his conversion, and 
devotion of himself to the cause of Christ in the 
ministry of the gospel. 

And the Living Voice in Exhortation and Prayer. 
— An aged deist in the State of Georgia, who had 
fought for infidelity all through life till he was 
now eighty years old, was converted through the 
voice of one of his slaves whom he overheard 
praying for his soul. 

One of these Christian workers in the employ 
of the American Tract Society writes: "Far in 
the mountains I entered a cabin without windows 



JOHN POTTER. 



77 



or floor, and found a family of ten children, not 
one of whom could read, nor had they ever heard 
a sermon. The father was unable to read, and was 
dreadfully profane. The mother could read im- 
perfectly, but was very ignorant. I had a long 
conversation with the old man. After he left the 
house the mother showed deep anxiety on the sub- 
ject of religion. The husband refused to accept a 
Bible, saying that the old woman would spend all 
her time trying to read it; and she was unwilling 
to take it after he left lest he should find it and 
abuse her. However, I determined to put the Bible 
where she could get it, and so placed it under the 
steps as I left the house. The cabin was six miles 
from the settlement, and the old man was often 
away all day, so the woman had time to spell out 
much of the New Testament. She read to the chil- 
dren, three of whom were grown girls, and they 
became interested. At length she felt that she must 
pray, and, exacting a promise from the children 
that they would not tell the father, she commenced 
to pray with them. 

" One evening the old man came in unexpectedly 
and found her reading the Bible. 'Oh, how is this? 
Just as I expected : that fellow that prayed here 
left it, did he? Well, old woman, read some for 
us.' She commenced, and read slowly of Christ 
being led out to Calvary and nailed to the cross, 
and the tw r o thieves nailed one on each side of him. 
He stopped her, and with an oath told her to read 

7 * 



78 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER, 

it again and again. At length he retired. She found 
the light dawning on her mind, and was able to 
accept of Christ as her Saviour; and in the fullness 
of her heart she felt that she must pray with her chil- 
dren and commit them to her new-found Saviour. 
But the old man, though quiet, was not asleep, and 
her prayers and rejoicings reached his heart. In 
the morning he went out to the woods and tried to 
pray, and when he returned he called his wife and 
said, ' Mother, gather the family: I must be a 
Christian;' and from that hour he commenced in 
the Lord's service. Returning some considerable 
time afterward, I timed my visit so as to reach the 
house when I thought the old man would be away. 
To my astonishment I saw him coming to meet me, 
and I checked my horse, for I was afraid of him. 
He ran out crying, ' Bless God for sending you 
here again !' and took me from my horse and 
actually carried me into the house. The man was 
a new man. I sent them a preacher, and the pa- 
rents and nine of the children professed faith in 
Christ." 

This, no doubt, is an exceptional instance, but 
it indicates the kind of service that is absolutely 
essential to the carrying into effect the command 
of a risen Saviour: "Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature." 

Such, then, is the genuine work of the colporteur. 
This is the work done by the missionaries of the 
Board of Publication. Scores of these men are 



JOHN POTTER. 



79 



now in the field going from house to house in a 
course of genuine gospel, pastoral visitation. Since 
the Reunion, now nine years ago, the missionaries 
of this Board have distributed by sale 581.829 
volumes, and by gift, 461,531 volumes, a total of 
1,043,360 volumes. They have also given away 
35,060,843 pages of tracts, and have visited 
1,027,143 families. Or let us look a little further 
back. Since the year 1850 they have distributed 
by sale 2,264,616 volumes, and by gift, 1,097,892, a 
total of 3.363,508 volumes. They have also given 
away 68,078,333 pages of tracts, and have visited 
4,239,350 families. Let us remember that a book 
does not perish with a single reading. It lives on, 
and teaches the children what it taught the parents. 
The vast majority of those 3,363,000 volumes are 
yet preserved in the homes where they were left, 
and are yet, in hours of loneliness or of thoughtful- 
ness, giving instruction to millions of families in 
the way of life eternal. 

A very large proportion of their visits are the 
only visits of the kind the family ever receives. 
These visits are made to families beyond the 
reach of the gospel through any other instru- 
mentality. These missionaries also establish Sab- 
bath-schools in destitute places, which schools be- 
come the nuclei of churches where people long 
neglected now enjoy regular Sabbath service and 
all the safeguards, instructions and consolations 
of a regularly-preached gospel. It is only about 



30 THE MODEL CHRISTIAN WORKER. 



four years since this work was definitely added to 
their former duties. Since that time they have 
visited and aided 6718 Sabbath- schools, and have 
organized 363 new schools in places before entirely 
destitute. Through their efforts over 12,000 chil- 
dren, before uncared for, have begun to receive in- 
struction in the word of God and guidance in the 
way of eternal life. How blessed and how im- 
portant is this aspect of the Board's missionary 
work ! Yet this, we trust, is but the beginning of 
far greater and more blessed efforts in this direc- 
tion. Let the Church furnish the necessary means, 
and this Board a few years hence will report to you 
its thousands of new Sabbath-schools organized 
and its hundreds of thousands of neglected children 
gathered into them in every part of the land. 

No one acquainted with the actual work of the 
Board through its missionaries will fail to recognize 
it as an absolutely necessary part of our Church 
machinery, nor fail to see that the contributor can 
make no better investment of the Lord's money 
than on the labors of the missionary work of the 
Board of Publication. Standing on the margin of 
this great field of labor, and lifting up his voice 
like a trumpet, is the spirit of John Potteb, the 
Model Christian Worker, saying to one and all, 
" The field is white to harvest, and let every one 
do what his hands find to do, and with his might." 



\ 



